Advocates for those seeking civil unions in the first moments that legal recognition of same-sex commitments takes effect in Colorado are well under way with party planning for the historic occasion.

More important, they are making sure those turning out to certify a civil union know what to expect.

It was previously reported that the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder's Office will open midnight to 2 a.m. May 1, the first day such licenses can be issued. Regular 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. hours will also be observed later that day, as usual.

But according to the LGBT advocacy group Out Boulder and county officials, doors will open at 11:30 p.m. April 30 -- even though midnight will still be the earliest that licenses may be applied for.

Out Boulder has reserved for that night the Houston room, a large meeting space on the ground floor of the county building at 1750 33rd St., where the Clerk and Recorder's Office is also located.

Out Boulder is seeking donations of cakes, non-alcoholic sparkling cider and even a disc jockey spinning "radio-approved music only."

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"We respect that this is a public building, so we don't want anything that is highly graphic or has cussing in it," said Aicila Lewis, executive director of Out Boulder. "That would seem disrespectful to the spirit of the occasion."

As many as 27 couples are now expected to show up for the midnight session. Couples wanting a license will be given a number on arrival by an Out Boulder volunteer.

Exactly at midnight, the first five couples will be sent upstairs to the five stations where clerk and recorder staffers will be issuing the licenses. The process for each couple should take 15 to 20 minutes. As one couple completes the process, the next waiting couple will then fill that opening.

"We had a look at the space, and if, with 27 couples, we had 54 people standing up there all at once, it was going to be very difficult for the people applying to even talk to the clerk," Lewis said. "We're just trying to do some crowd management so people won't be having to be repeating themselves."

Applicants for a civil union license must be 18 or older and bring valid identification such as a driver's license, passport, visa (if it is part of a passport), original or certified birth certificate. Also, $30 will be needed for the license and recording fee.

And because no third-party officiant is required to finalize or legitimize a civil union -- the participants' signatures are enough -- couples will be able to head home that night with legal confirmation of their bond.

"If they sign it there, they can certify their union on the spot that night and walk out of the building in a legally recognized union," said clerk and recorder's spokesman Brad Turner.

The certificate of union that couples leave with May 1 will be a certified copy, Turner said, with the original coming in the mail roughly two weeks later.

Heterosexual couples also are permitted to obtain a civil union.

According to the advocacy group One Colorado, Boulder and Denver are still the only two of Colorado's 64 counties that have scheduled midnight licensing.

However, applicants are not required to live in the county in which they apply for a license. Therefore, it isn't known how many -- if any -- couples might show up at the Boulder County office from nearby counties, where they'd otherwise be waiting past daybreak.

But Lewis expects the Boulder midnight affair will see more than just the 27 couples with whom she has so far been in contact.

"People have called, and some of these are folks interested in coming to show support," Lewis said. "They are possibly heterosexual allies, bisexual or trans folks, that didn't want to take advantage of something to which their same-sex friends didn't have any access at all. They waited because of the inequity."

One Colorado is hosting a statewide webinar to answer questions about civil unions Wednesday.

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